Your Greatest Accomplishments

Off Topic
1

I don’t usually start general topic threads, but it’s nearly my birthday, which seems to always lead to reflection on years past (ha, despite the fact that I’m only turning 24).

I haven’t done a lot with my life yet, but I think that one thing that’s interesting to think about is what you consider to be your greatest individual accomplishment and what others think is your greatest accomplishment.

I didn’t start this thread to boast or anything, as I thought it might make for an interesting thought piece for others to post what they think is the thing they’re proudest of and what others would think it to be.

My example:

My senior year of college had two major accomplishments, probably the biggest two of my life:
-Ran my first marathon and set a course record for my age division.
-Was accepted at the best law school in the country.

Looking back on it (and even at the time), I think of marathon performance as easily the accomplishment I’m prouder of. I feel like the training and race itself were life-changing experiences, while getting accepted at the best law school in the country was just one of those things that happened, provided me a great opportunity, and will serve me well in the future.

When I say that, friends and family think I’m crazy or lying. It’s really bizarre to them that I would take the marathon performance (with a modest time, at 3 hours) over the acceptance. At first, I thought this might just spell out different priorities for different people, but what I think it really points to is the value of an experience versus the value of an accomplishment.

So, what’s your greatest individual accomplishment? Would others agree? What might the disagreement say about your priorities, the power of your experiences, etc?

2

Got into med school.

Lemme know if you’re going to do malpractice, I have this bad habit of losing my tools in the cadavers, I may need a good lawyer.

3

[quote]Ghost22 wrote:
Got into med school.

Lemme know if you’re going to do malpractice, I have this bad habit of losing my tools in the cadavers, I may need a good lawyer. [/quote]

Are you in med school now?!?! Tell me how it is, what you think of it blah blah blah. Anything and everything you want to share. I am fully focused on getting there right now.

4

[quote]TD54 wrote:

[quote]Ghost22 wrote:
Got into med school.

Lemme know if you’re going to do malpractice, I have this bad habit of losing my tools in the cadavers, I may need a good lawyer. [/quote]

Are you in med school now?!?! Tell me how it is, what you think of it blah blah blah. Anything and everything you want to share. I am fully focused on getting there right now.[/quote]

Most valuable goddamn resource there is. I’ll throw you a PM later and tell you more.

Edit: Check your PMs, TD54.

5

  1. Junior year of college got an internship to CERN (1 of only 10 americans selected)

  2. Published a paper there when I had only just turned 21.

  3. Got a 990 on the Physics GRE (as in 99 percentile…just for comparison the average score for incoming grad students at a program like CalTech is an 810; I was the first at my university to get anything over an 800)

  4. Pulled 405 for 2 reps after only 8 months of training.

  5. Got down to 9% body fat last summer after never being below 18% since I was a kid (including years of competitive swimming, track, and cross country! Who’d have thought weight training was superior?! Although, I’m pretty sure switching to paleo had something to do with it…)

6

[quote]jskrabac wrote:

  1. Junior year of college got an internship to CERN (1 of only 10 americans selected)

  2. Published a paper there when I had only just turned 21.

  3. Got a 990 on the Physics GRE (as in 99 percentile…just for comparison the average score for incoming grad students at a program like CalTech is an 810; I was the first at my university to get anything over an 800)

  4. Pulled 405 for 2 reps after only 8 months of training.

  5. Got down to 9% body fat last summer after never being below 18% since I was a kid (including years of competitive swimming, track, and cross country! Who’d have thought weight training was superior?! Although, I’m pretty sure switching to paleo had something to do with it…) [/quote]

Right, so the next question would be how you might rank those in terms of how much you valued each versus how family/friends might see it. Is there a difference for you?

7

[quote]jskrabac wrote:

  1. Junior year of college got an internship to CERN (1 of only 10 americans selected)

  2. Published a paper there when I had only just turned 21.

  3. Got a 990 on the Physics GRE (as in 99 percentile…just for comparison the average score for incoming grad students at a program like CalTech is an 810; I was the first at my university to get anything over an 800)

  4. Pulled 405 for 2 reps after only 8 months of training.

  5. Got down to 9% body fat last summer after never being below 18% since I was a kid (including years of competitive swimming, track, and cross country! Who’d have thought weight training was superior?! Although, I’m pretty sure switching to paleo had something to do with it…) [/quote]

So basically you are close to a perfect human being.

8

You know, this thread comes off as very distasteful, but that’s probably just because im super jelly

9

[quote]TD54 wrote:
You know, this thread comes off as very distasteful, but that’s probably just because im super jelly[/quote]

Well, the point of it was to consider what incongruities between how you perceive your own achievements and how others see them might point to something beyond differing priorities, whether it be the value of the experience or some other factor that others either miss or can’t really appreciate. The point wasn’t for it to be a dick-measuring contest, but I could definitely see how it might trend that way. Who knows.

10

[quote]jskrabac wrote:
2. Published a paper there when I had only just turned 21.
[/quote]

Interesting, what is your paper? I am guessing you are a physic graduate (bachelor), right?

11

I didn’t decapitate my penis in the zipper today. Take that, overachievers.

12

[quote]The3Commandments wrote:
I don’t usually start general topic threads, but it’s nearly my birthday, which seems to always lead to reflection on years past (ha, despite the fact that I’m only turning 24).

I haven’t done a lot with my life yet, but I think that one thing that’s interesting to think about is what you consider to be your greatest individual accomplishment and what others think is your greatest accomplishment.

I didn’t start this thread to boast or anything, as I thought it might make for an interesting thought piece for others to post what they think is the thing they’re proudest of and what others would think it to be.

My example:

My senior year of college had two major accomplishments, probably the biggest two of my life:
-Ran my first marathon and set a course record for my age division.
-Was accepted at the best law school in the country.

Looking back on it (and even at the time), I think of marathon performance as easily the accomplishment I’m prouder of. I feel like the training and race itself were life-changing experiences, while getting accepted at the best law school in the country was just one of those things that happened, provided me a great opportunity, and will serve me well in the future.

When I say that, friends and family think I’m crazy or lying. It’s really bizarre to them that I would take the marathon performance (with a modest time, at 3 hours) over the acceptance. At first, I thought this might just spell out different priorities for different people, but what I think it really points to is the value of an experience versus the value of an accomplishment.

So, what’s your greatest individual accomplishment? Would others agree? What might the disagreement say about your priorities, the power of your experiences, etc?[/quote]

Well surely you must have more accomplishments you’d have highlighted in your resume that got you accepted into Harvard Law.

13

As to what others consider my greatest achievement, honestly I’ve probably gotten the most compliments or admiration for how close I am to my younger siblings/the respect/admiration evident when I talk about my mother. I’m only a sophomore in college, so I haven’t had a whole lot for people to comment on.

Personally Im most proud of making it to state for wrestling in high school. Freshman year I won 1 match, sophomore year I was 36% bf, and won 7 matches. Junior year I was 33% and won 16 matches, and senior year I was 21% bf won 32 matches, went to state, and set the pin record for my school. I also was down to 19% bf by the end of season.

14

[quote]The3Commandments wrote:

[quote]jskrabac wrote:

  1. Junior year of college got an internship to CERN (1 of only 10 americans selected)

  2. Published a paper there when I had only just turned 21.

  3. Got a 990 on the Physics GRE (as in 99 percentile…just for comparison the average score for incoming grad students at a program like CalTech is an 810; I was the first at my university to get anything over an 800)

  4. Pulled 405 for 2 reps after only 8 months of training.

  5. Got down to 9% body fat last summer after never being below 18% since I was a kid (including years of competitive swimming, track, and cross country! Who’d have thought weight training was superior?! Although, I’m pretty sure switching to paleo had something to do with it…) [/quote]

Right, so the next question would be how you might rank those in terms of how much you valued each versus how family/friends might see it. Is there a difference for you?[/quote]

I’d really have a hard time ranking them. They were all comparable to me. As far as family, they could really give two shits about any of it…just the way it goes sometimes. I did it for me and me only. All my close friends were proud of me at least.

1,2,3 my mom and dad said they were proud about, but didn’t really appreciate the magnitude of it. 4 I got a lecture from my father and sister (a PT) about how “terrible” that much weight is for my spine, even though during that same 8 months I fixed my posture and increased my mobility. 5 My sister consulted my mom and dad and told them to do something about my “anorexia.” I have given up any notion of doing things to make my family proud loooooong ago…

15

[quote]jasmincar wrote:

[quote]jskrabac wrote:
2. Published a paper there when I had only just turned 21.
[/quote]

Interesting, what is your paper? I am guessing you are a physic graduate (bachelor), right?
[/quote]

Yes, I’m a second year graduate student.

The paper I’m referring to is the second one. I happened to be the sole author, which is pretty cool. At the end of our summer stay, they told us to write a scientific paper about “what we learned.” I decided just to write it as a scientific paper. It caught my advisor’s attention, and now it’s in their archives.

16

[quote]Skyman70 wrote:
As to what others consider my greatest achievement, honestly I’ve probably gotten the most compliments or admiration for how close I am to my younger siblings/the respect/admiration evident when I talk about my mother. I’m only a sophomore in college, so I haven’t had a whole lot for people to comment on.

Personally Im most proud of making it to state for wrestling in high school. Freshman year I won 1 match, sophomore year I was 36% bf, and won 7 matches. Junior year I was 33% and won 16 matches, and senior year I was 21% bf won 32 matches, went to state, and set the pin record for my school. I also was down to 19% bf by the end of season. [/quote]

Solid progress!

17

[quote]Skyman70 wrote:
As to what others consider my greatest achievement, honestly I’ve probably gotten the most compliments or admiration for how close I am to my younger siblings/the respect/admiration evident when I talk about my mother. I’m only a sophomore in college, so I haven’t had a whole lot for people to comment on.

Personally Im most proud of making it to state for wrestling in high school. Freshman year I won 1 match, sophomore year I was 36% bf, and won 7 matches. Junior year I was 33% and won 16 matches, and senior year I was 21% bf won 32 matches, went to state, and set the pin record for my school. I also was down to 19% bf by the end of season. [/quote]

I wrestled in high school as well. To climb the ladder like that from having one win to going to states is a HUGE accomplishment. Congrats.

I fucked off in HS, not just some C’s and D’s but Failures and D’s, but since my first semester in college at a below-my-standards school, I turned myself around, got a 4.0 these first two semesters, have been working two jobs and have been accepted into the same school as a transfer as the valedictorian of my HS graduating class. (she’s in the honors program, but still)

18

[quote]jskrabac wrote:

  1. Junior year of college got an internship to CERN (1 of only 10 americans selected)

  2. Published a paper there when I had only just turned 21.

  3. Got a 990 on the Physics GRE (as in 99 percentile…just for comparison the average score for incoming grad students at a program like CalTech is an 810; I was the first at my university to get anything over an 800)

  4. Pulled 405 for 2 reps after only 8 months of training.

  5. Got down to 9% body fat last summer after never being below 18% since I was a kid (including years of competitive swimming, track, and cross country! Who’d have thought weight training was superior?! Although, I’m pretty sure switching to paleo had something to do with it…) [/quote]

  6. Pulled jeans up over ass.